The most controversial goal of the World Cup: FIFA explains why it validated Japan’s goal against Spain

Despite Pierluigi Collina, chairman of FIFA’s refereeing committee, announcing shortly before the start of Qatar 2022 that VAR audio with the referees would not be revealed, world football’s governing body provided explanations on Japan’s controversial goal against Spain for the third round of Group E.

Through its social networks, the entity based in Zurich, Switzerland expressed: “VAR reviewed Japan’s second goal in a 2-1 win over Spain to determine if the ball was out of play”.

He added: “The referees of the video match used the camera images of the goal line to check whether the ball was still partially on the line or not.” This first publication was accompanied by images of the official broadcast with the play in question in slow motion.

Immediately, it displays a simulation of the location of its cameras to illustrate the second text which states: “Other cameras may offer misleading images, but based on the available evidence, the ball was not out of play.

After the match, which stipulated that the Asians finish first and have Croatia as rivals in the round of 16 and that Spain should face Morocco, complaints and suspicions of dubious refereeing began in a decisive match.

Furthermore, in Spain, it was speculated that Luis Enrique’s team would try to finish second to avoid more complex rivals in “head-to-head”.

However, it was the coach himself who denied this possibility in the press conference. Indeed, when asked about the three minutes in which Spain and Germany were eliminated due to partial results, the 2015 European champion with Barcelona in 2015 said he did not know.

“Don’t speculate,” he told reporters.